Two brothers and their Donkeys
by ACEAMC
Summary: This is a fable that I just had the urge to write while reading about our current president and remembering our former, more respectful one. I didn't know where else to put fables, so I chose here. Rated T for violent ownage.


Two brothers and their donkeys.

Some years ago an old, wise farmer called upon his two youngest sons while on his deathbed, so that he may give them their final inheritance. "My boys, I have worked hard for the land I own now; it is my final wish that you do the same and become honest farmers as I have. I have divided my land in halves, one for each of you. To each I have built a cabin and a little shed, fields ready for planting and the tools and seeds necessary for it. Also I have left each of you a plow and a young donkey, both strong and well-fed. I wish I could help you more, but the rest has gone towards your older relatives who have put it towards their own fortunes. I wish you both luck, and I shall watch over you as best I can. Goodbye, my beloved children." The old man smiled once more to his children, and then departed this world.

Both young men found what their father had promised upon their divided estates. Each got a one-room cabin with a bed, table and chair and a shed with oat and corn seeds inside it. Both also contained a donkey: one had reddish brown fur, the other bluish grey. Both young men set right to work planting the new crop and worked them well, and within a few seasons both men were successful. But a recognizable difference began to arise between the two farmers, mostly prominent in lifestyle and in the treatment of their beasts of burden.

The son with the reddish-brown donkey was thoughtful and respectful to the sources of his wealth. He often attended church, paying into the tithe and praying in thanks both to the Lord and to his father in Heaven. He also began saving a sizable amount of his earnings for future enterprises and setbacks, but also set some of his money into making his farm a better place. His built a cozy, dry barn and chicken coop and soon filled both with chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, a few cows, a pair of hunting dogs, a tabby to keep it free of mice and rats, and of course his faithful donkey whose stall sat at the very end of the barn. He also expanded his cabin into a more spacious and more furnished farmhouse and bought a cart to ferry his crop, which now included both his father's grains and corn and the vegetables and fruits he had begun growing in later crops into town to sell and thus make life easier. His faithful donkey, which pulled both this cart and his plow, was so well-groomed and strong-looking that many in town would mistake him for a horse. He and all the other animals on the farm were also well fed and cared for out of the same respect and care their master paid towards his celestial benefactors. Not a single flea tormented them, and each seemed to produce more quality work the better their master treated them. But the donkey was the most exceptional.

Every spring, the young farmer would harness his donkey to his plow and push it across the field that brought him and his land such riches with only simple commands to the donkey would obey better than any dog. He moved at a steady, quick but stable speed, and the plowing was done in half the time any other farm could do it. As a reward for his work the donkey was always given a carrot, saved from last year's harvest, to accompany his already generous meal. Whenever he pulled his master's cart into town at the harvest he was given a fresh apple, grown from his master's orchard behind his home for his special treat.

The Bluish-grey donkey was not so lucky. His master started building a barn but ceased working on it halfway though. Not because of insufficient funds, as this farmer had plenty from growing only the oats and corn his father had given him. For this fortune the donkey worked just as hard but was fed less for and beaten with a stick if he went too fast or too slow. His master simply decided it would be in his best interest to tear down his cabin and rebuild it as a massive manor, filled with plush carpets and fine furnishings. Here the master would host massive parties and festivities for his friends, which included a motley crew of ne'er-do-wells from the city; while his Donkey shivered in the wind and rain with only a half-built barn to protect him and a near-empty manger to fill his always empty belly. Almost ten years passed this way; as his master grew fatter, richer and more careless with his sources of wealth the donkey became weaker and more sickly. It was a wonder that he survived that long at all.

One night the master of the bluish donkey was hosting a lavish Christmas Eve party with his friends from the city and the conversation turned to his position in life. "Ah yes, my life is a constant pain!" the man lied instinctively, "My fields are worthless and that ugly beast of mine is too lazy to pull the plow anymore. What am I to do?" his friends knew all too well that this was a lie, not only did his fields yield a good enough crop to give him all the food and ale for his festivities, but the only reason the donkey couldn't pull the plow anymore was because he was too weak to do it. Regardless, they humored him, seeing opportunity. "I am so sorry to hear that my friend." Said the most influential and most wicked of his friends, lying though his teeth, "What you should do is move to the city, a man as smart and as charismatic as you could strike up a fortune in no time. Sell this home, these fields and this miserable donkey and you could by a castle and live like a king, with no troubles anymore." As the men swayed the man more and more with both drink and honey-sweet words, he thought less and less of the promise he made to his father long ago, and before the party had ended he had resolved in his mind to rid himself of his land and his father's work for a life without worry in the city.

The next day he set about trying to sell his land and home to anyone who would buy it, and within a month a young woman saw the lavish house and halfway done barn as an opportunity to seize life. But when she came to inspect the land she was horrified with the state of the donkey, "How could you let this poor thing come to this?" she asked, petting the emaciated creature on the nose gently, "I can see every bone in its body, and it's almost blind!"

"I know this," the man said, sweetening his words, "That donkey was inheritance from my father who passed away only three days ago, and it is an old thing. He wanted me to take care of it in its final days, to which I gave my word." The woman did not believe him, but since she was certain the man would take the animal away from these conditions to a better place she bought the farm and right away began fixing it as the man's brother had.

Selling the donkey proved to be more of a challenge. Anyone he tried to sell the starving animal to, which could hardly even stand anymore, would take one look at it and shake their head, sometimes glaring at his master for the apparent mistreatment it had suffered from . Three days his master tried to sell him, and three days nobody would buy. Finally the master grew weary of this. He gathered his friends from the city and together they tied several large stones to the bluish-grey donkey's legs, tail, ears and neck and carried him to a bridge that spanned a deep and fast river. With one shove they hurled the suffering beast over the edge and into the water, and after giving one pitiful bay to his master he disappeared under the waves.

Content to his work the man collected his things in a lavish cart drawn by two pure black draft horses and carted off both his friends and all his riches to the city, but on the road though the woods, halfway between the river where he drowned his donkey and the city his friends fell upon him; beating him brutally and taking even his clothes away before abandoning him in the woods. The man tried to buy back his farm, but as his money was taken he could not. He died a pauper in the city, and few remembered a greedy farmer and his mistreated donkey ever existed. His so-called friends blazed though his fortune though drinking and gambling and other vices, and other city denizens chose not to question their new-found wealth or extravagance, lest they suffer their ill-will.

Only his older brother wondered what became of his sibling, by was taken by the stranger who bought his farmhouse and by her beauty, wisdom, and kindness. She too was drawn to his kindness and mutual respect for all around him and was awed by his farm and its many wonders, especially the strong, dog-like donkey with reddish-brown fur. Soon the two were married, and the man proved to be as good a father as he was to the animals in his care. The donkey lived on for many more years, working as hard as it could though that time and treated with respect and love even after he could work no more. When his beloved friend and most devoted helper died the man chose to bury him under the ruined remains of the barn his brother's old home, which had been cleared away after he had gotten married in favor of his farmhouse. Over the donkey's grave, the farmer planted a Gala Appleseed and with a prayer and a tear left the grave. Over the next year the seed was watered both by nature and the farmer, and within five years a fully-grown tree had sprouted up. True to his form the man used the money from the apples to pay the tithe, keep his farm and family well cared for, and saved some for future enterprises and setbacks. He also shared a part of this crop with his family and animals; which now included a bluish-grey, hard working, strong, well groomed, flealess, horse-like donkey who pulled the farmer's cart and plow.

Moral: Respect what you are given and always be thankful. (This includes those in power; even the president.) Or else you will have nothing.


End file.
